wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  Straits Times 25 Jun 07
Bangkok governor ups the tempo on green measures
Nirmal Ghosh

BANGKOK - GOVERNOR Apirak Kosayothin has moved into a high-gear mode on global warming and what Bangkok, as Thailand's biggest city, can do to stop polluting itself and the planet at large.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has rolled out a target to cut carbon emissions in the city of around 10 million people and 5.5 million vehicles, by 15 per cent by the year 2012.

A range of measures designed to achieve this is on the menu, from weeding out old and overly polluting vehicles from the streets, to improving waste removal and sorting, urging vehicle owners to switch to clean fuel, and getting major buildings to use energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs.

Mr Apirak rolled out the basics of the programme on May 9, and elaborated on it at a Large Cities Climate Summit in New York later. He also signed up - along with mayors of 16 of the world's largest cities - for a US$5 billion (S$7.5 billion) initiative with major banks to retrofit buildings in their cities to save energy.

The programme has been put together by former US president Bill Clinton, who roped in ABN Amro, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and UBS to provide US$1 billion each to finance retrofitting in buildings in those cities.

The initial group of large cities includes Bangkok, Berlin, Chicago, Johannesburg, Karachi, London, Melbourne, New York, Mexico City, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Tokyo and Toronto.

Large cities worldwide consume 75 per cent of the world's energy and produce 80 per cent of greenhouse gases. Bangkok accounts for up to 40 per cent of Thailand's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Mr Apirak also brought back a raft of 'best practices' from 40 cities, from sophisticated places like London to developing world cities such as Bogota, capital of Colombia.

He has launched a campaign for the Thai capital's 200-odd wet markets, to get shop owners to install compact fluorescent bulbs.

Last month, the state-run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) and the private sector donated an initial 1,100 compact fluorescent lamps which have been presented to vendors at four wet markets. A total of 44,202 lamps are needed for the change across the city, the BMA said.

Once the change is completed, by the end of this month, sizeable savings are likely. Electrical power usage at a rate of 20 watts for each fluorescent lamp means 15,488,380 KW per hour or around seven million baht (S$311,000) will be saved across the 200-odd markets - and carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 7,883.43 tonnes annually.

Hospitals are also on the list of buildings. Mr Apirak has both ends of the chain covered; he has roped in Toshiba Lighting Company to help City Hall promote public cooperation in discarding fluorescent bulbs in a proper manner.

Toshiba is one of 36 organisations from the private and public sectors and non-government organisations, which he has roped in to take part in his programme.

On June 5, the BMA released a preliminary five- year plan for Bangkok to reduce its contribution to global warming. The plan will be finalised after public hearings on Aug 12, which is Queen Sirikit's birthday.

Every month, there is an awareness drive as well. On July 9, the BMA will focus on energy wastage from idling car engines.

The BMA is in the process of a joint survey with central government agencies and the public sector, to find out how many vehicles are 'not using clean energy' and how many should be taken off the road annually, Mr Apirak announced on World Environment Day on June 5.

That same day, he also had 1,000 trees planted in a city garden.

In cooperation with Bang Chak Petroleum, the BMA has started a programme in Bangkok's Phra Khanong district, in which it buys used cooking oil from households to produce biofuel.

Mr Apirak has also signed an agreement with the Federation of Thai Industries and three educational institutions to promote the proper separation of wastes.

The conventional wisdom is that Mr Apirak cannot impose London-style congestion charges in Bangkok simply because it is such an unruly city, with disparate modes of transport spilling across it, and significant disparities in income levels.

'Part of the problem is also that we don't have good alternatives to offer,' he told The Straits Times.

So he is seeking instead to enhance and promote the use of public transport. 'We already have a master plan under which we will have another five routes (for urban rapid transit) that will be implemented in the next five years, including the first across the Chao Phraya river next year.'

A new extension of the Sukhumvit subway line, beyond its current terminus at On Nut, will also open in two years. Once some of these new lines and a new bus rapid transit system which uses natural gas are in place, he would try levying congestion charges in a designated 'green zone' - probably the business districts of Sathon and Silom, he said.
links
Clinton, Cities, Unveil US$5 Bln Buildings Energy Plan
Story by Michelle Nichols and Timothy Gardner PlanetArk 17 May 07

Related articles on climate change
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com